Web-shaped semi-finished products or finished products with web widths of up to several meters are generally known in many forms within the framework of industrial manufacturing processes and are preferably made available for processing in windings with diameters of up to several meters. Substantially flexible semi-finished products or finished products are wound onto winding tubes that impart the required stability required for the industrial processing, especially on the one hand at the start of the winding on and on the other hand toward the end of the winding off, even given only a few layers of the semi-finished product or finished product. For example, papers for the industrial printing of newspapers and books, cellulose webs for manufacturing hygienic cloths and cleaning cloths as well as the endless plurality of foils [sheets], textile fabrics and knit fabrics are made available for further processing as web-shaped semi-finished products or finished products on such winding tubes.
The plurality of such web-shaped semi-finished products or finished products whose differences in a manufacturing process are frequently present only in the area of nuances makes a reliable identification of a special web-shaped semi-finished product or finished product difficult. For example, not only papers with different gram weights but also with different surface qualities, color shades or additives can be used for the printing of books, but in addition, the processing of different batches of the same paper in a product should be avoided as a rule.
In order to solve this problem in the manufacturing of cigarette papers and filter papers, DE 202 05 555 U1 suggests integrating a data carrier in the wall of the winding tube which data carrier contains data about the winding tube and about the web-shaped semi-finished product or finished product, which data should be able to be read from the chip in a contactless manner. Such data carriers and the methods for reading and writing are generally known in the form of radio frequency transponder elements (so-called RFID tags).
The known winding tubes are often heavily loaded mechanically during the winding on and winding off of the web-shaped semi-finished product or finished product and are therefore subjected to relatively high wear. The data carrier integrated directly into the winding tube cannot be separated, even from a worn winding tube, with economically justifiable expense for reuse and may hinder the recycling of the winding tube itself.
The data carrier integrated into the known winding tubes is exposed substantially to the same mechanical deformations as the adjacent winding tube. Both a radial compression [buckling] of the winding tube by the wound-on web-shaped semi-finished product or finished product as well as the dynamically oscillating deformation of the winding tube in particular toward the end of the winding off are directly transferred onto the data carrier. This loading may result in a high number of rejections of the data carriers.
The methods used to produce the known winding tubes with data carriers offer no possibility of retrofitting present winding tubes, of removing a data carrier from the winding tube or of replacing one data carrier by another one. The plurality of the possible requirements placed on winding tubes and data carriers for different usages or in different methods therefore requires in principle a data carrier that can be used for all conceivable uses and is therefore very valuable. In particular, when data carriers are desired and should be readable and writable from a fairly remote distance, data carriers with active transmitting apparatuses are necessary that as a rule have their own energy supply. In this instance the required structural space may be large and the expense high so that a recycling of the data carriers is appropriate.
In the known winding tubes, the data carriers are inserted into a hollow space adapted to their shape. This hollow space represents a mechanically weak point of the divided winding tube and a preferred breaking point, especially given a high loading of the winding tube with oscillations. In order to avoid material failure, the known winding tubes provided with data carriers must be manufactured from relatively high-quality materials or with relatively thick walls.
DE 101 15 200 A1 teaches a spool for receiving or transporting wound material. The known spool comprises a data carrier from which information about the spool and/or the wound material can be gathered. The data carrier is designed as a transponder and can be arranged at various positions on the spool. For one, it can be fastened to the inner spool wall. Alternatively, its attachment to a hub-shaped flange part separately attached to the spool body on a conical outer surface of this flange is disclosed. Moreover, an arrangement on the inner side of a radially running front surface of the tube is also suggested.
WO 98/28213 A1 describes a web storage roll, e.g. for paper webs, with an interactively codable and readable information carrier designed as a code carrier comprising a data memory. The code carrier can be arranged, e.g., centrally in a hub that can be inserted into a tube body or it can be adhered to the inside of the tube body wall. However, it can also be arranged alternatively inside the tube body wall in the form of an axially running bore on the front side or inside a bore that radially penetrates the wall.
Furthermore, WO 99/50788 A1 also discloses a winding tube that is provided on its inner jacket surface with a flexible carrier element consisting of paper whose surface facing the inner jacket surface is provided with an adhesive coating. An electronic data carrier is adhered to the carrier element by this adhesive coating. The adhesive coating also serves to adhere the carrier element including the data carrier to the inner jacket surface of the tube body in order to establish a firm connection between winding tube and data carrier. The data carrier, for its part, serves to be able to query information about the winding tube or the winding material from the outside in a contactless manner. Alternatively, the data carrier can also be adhered from the outside to the outer jacket surface of the tube body by the same carrier element, which, however, results in unevenness in the area of the tube diameter, viewed over the tube circumference. Finally, the data carrier can also be fastened in the tube by a tubular object, which tubular object corresponds in its diameter substantially to the inside diameter of the tube.
The invention is based on the problem of suggesting a winding tube with data carrier which winding tube is economical to manufacture and can be used in a variable manner, exhibits good operating and recycling properties and thus avoids the described disadvantages of the known state of the art.